bio
cv
projects:
/  solo performance
/  ensemble composition
/  video art

/   bands & recording

/ research & writing
/  persimmons
/  design  
 
My Ph.D. was awarded to me by a program called “Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology” (ICIT) at University of California Irvine. This program tends to favor the tools and processes of the musical electronicist / technologist / coder / builder. It also favors instrumentalists and composers of various traditions.

My thesis focused on abstract, graphic music notation for improvisational music. To satisfy the Technology pilar of this program, i devised an easy system of live broading graphic permutations of a dynamic, progiressive ensemble score, using skills consistent with those employed to create static, non-dynamic scores with Adobe software. 

My written dissertation can be found online here or PDF

The capstone creative project was documented by Emily Lacy and can be seen below:

Abstract:

   This dissertation extends the investigation of the utility and function of abstract graphic music notation, through scholarly and creative practical research. Graphic notation is often situated in an ephemeral current of aleatoric music- a gig; a momentary and impulsive transaction between composers and performers, commonly focused around spontaneous interpretation. Analysis of graphic notation generally comprises artists’ statements, historicization, and intrigue for the novel and relatively obscure genre of composing. As graphic notation continues to emerge within myriad subcategories of creative music, as well as contemporary art contexts, pedagogical, and neurological research, it is important to survey its modern provisions, affordances, and socio-cultural outcomes.
 
    In this project, I first examine existing research into graphic notation, and briefly trace its emergence in contemporary music over three quarter-centuries, to demonstrate how it has and continues to address the creative and technical needs of composer-performers. I touch upon other scientific domains, specifically music education. Examples of graphically notated works are then cited and analyzed for their musical performance and/or art exhibition. From a semiotic perspective, I measure the interpretation and meaning-making of abstracted notational symbols. As a visual language, I look closely at the space surrounding its ever-evolving vocabulary. I theorize about both qualitative and quantitative valuation of interstices in the syntax of graphic notation passages. From the dynamic positioning to the contrasts in color, texture, shape, and size between abstract characters, transformational relationships are equally important for interpretation by improvising musicians. Citing successful exhibitions in the art world, I investigate the appearance of graphic notation in galleries and museums by composers and conceptual artists alike, particularly the subsequent impact on music’s ontological status and cultural reach among an expanding audience.

   A scholarly framework sets the tone for the autoethnographic account of my practical research experiments during my Doctoral tenure. The creative activity for this dissertation comprised multiple ways of using graphic notation in practice, ranging from semi-permanent art exhibitions, which doubled as performance environments, to a large-scale concert of ensemble scores,  spontaneously-generated by manipulating commercial software and graphic design techniques as an improvisational and interactive form of composition.


Concert:

   For my capstone project, I tried a number of ways to make notation spontaneously, in a concert setting. The result was a form of conducting, by sending many pages of notation to 9 musicians through a Zoom call. I shared my screen– one Adobe Illustrator file, in Apple’s Preview app, which continued updating as I iterated and saved the file. A script coded by my friend Ezra allowed me to duplicate and save each iteration to a folder, to compile everything at the end. In each half of the performance, I creatived roughly 115 pages.

Part 1
 

Part 2